‘Forget the boundaries’

A plea to reduce the number of regional tourism offices (RTOs) protecting borders that nobody else cares about was made at the CAPA – Centre for Aviation Summit in Hilton Auckland this week.

Richard Roberts, chief executive officer of Dunedin Airport, says that of the around 30 RTOs in New Zealand he would suggest most of them are parochial. ‘By the way they are the only ones who know where their boundaries are, the tourist don’t care. ‘They should all be working together to grow the pie, because once the pie gets bigger so does each piece.’ Roberts says RTOs should be doing what they can to support Auckland and Christchurch, as well as Air New Zealand, to keep bringing in long haul travellers.